ABOUT AFROTC

HISTORY

Air Force ROTC unofficially began with the passage of the Morrill Act (Land-Grant Act) in 1862, which established military training at land-grant colleges and universities. But the name “Reserve Officer Training Corps,” or ROTC, was actually created by the passage of the National Defense Act in 1916.

In the 1920s, AFROTC began focusing on successful engineering schools to establish its programs. And by the 1950s, there were 188 AFROTC units with 145,000 cadets. Women began joining Air Force ROTC nationally in 1970. And in 1987, the scholarship program for high school seniors began.